Delayed device or Family media plan?

Delayed device and Family media plan differ most on their own device, other families and whether it applies to the adults. They agree, more than most people expect, on how much, alone or together and shape of the rule. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Delayed device

The two questions are separated completely. Television, the family tablet and the shared computer are ordinary and managed loosely; a personal, pocket, always-on, camera-carrying device is a different thing and is delayed for years past the point it becomes normal. The position travels well because it is collective — it is far easier to hold when other families in the class hold it too, which is exactly what the pledge campaigns exist to do.

What it asks of you

Finding other families to hold it with you, or your child holds it alone
An answer for the period when their friends are on a group chat they are not
Distinguishing the device from the internet, since they will meet the second regardless

Family media plan

Everyone sits down, the rules get written, and they apply to the whole house. The content of the plan matters less than the two features that define it: it is explicit, so nobody is improvising at bedtime, and it binds the adults, so it is a rule about the household rather than a rule about being a child. It is the approach most likely to survive a second parent disagreeing, because the disagreement gets had once and written down.

What it asks of you

Actually sitting down and writing it, which most households never get to
Living under your own rule, including the part about phones at dinner
Revisiting it, because a plan written for a five-year-old is wrong for an eight-year-old

Side by side

Where they differ

Delayed device is the filled marker, Family media plan the hollow one. Widest difference first.

W3Their own device

as late as possibleearly — it is how things are now

Delayed device sits firmly toward as late as possible; Family media plan sits between the two.

P3Other families

holding the line whatever others donot wanting them left out

Delayed device sits firmly toward holding the line whatever others do; Family media plan sits between the two.

P2Whether it applies to the adults

adult use is a separate matterthe rules are the same for the adults

Delayed device sits a little toward the rules are the same for the adults; Family media plan sits firmly toward the rules are the same for the adults.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

How much. Both sit between the two.
Alone or together. Both sit between the two.
Shape of the rule. Both sit between the two.
Who picks. Both sit between the two.
How much the week needs them. Both sit between the two.
Tied to behaviour. Both sit a little toward never earned, never removed.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing